There are several ways to generate iPS cells. The MSiPS Biobank uses blood cells obtained from volunteers with and without MS as a source for the generation of the iPS cell lines. The blood cells are cultured in the laboratory and subsequently exposed to reprogramming factors that return the blood cells to a primitive precursor stage. At this precursor stage, the cells are ‘pluripotent’; they can – under the right conditions – be converted into any desired cell type of the human body. iPS cells can in principle be kept in culture indefinitely and can be used to study a variety of cellular processes.